State. Elements.
In
simple terms, a state has the following elements: population, territory,
government and law.
We
started this series of posts by defining territorial disputes. In relation to
this point, Merrills tells us that a “dispute may be defined as a specific
disagreement concerning a matter of fact, law or policy in which the claim or
assertion of one party is met with refusal, counter-claim or denial by
another.”
Merrills,
J.G. 2017. International Dispute Settlement. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
This
series of posts is centers on one particular kind of international
disagreement: territorial disputes. We have already seen that territorial
disputes have to do with two key concepts: STATE and SOVEREIGNTY. Additionally,
we preliminary defined State as a group of people (population) that live in a certain
territory and have in common a government and a system of norms (law).
Although
population, territory, government and law are the essential components in order
to have a state, there are other elements (or sub-elements): currency, market,
defense, language, religion, etc.
For
clarity in the exposition, the following paragraphs introduce one element at a
time (population, territory, government and law) and in each case, some of
their sub-elements:
a) population: the people
that are the nation, the subjective element of the state. If we wanted to
reduce the issue to its normative existence, we could say that the population
of a state is determined by its law (for example, national citizen and
foreigners). Is it necessary for a nation to have people from the same ethnic
origin, professing the same religion or speaking the same language? Some of
these questions find their answer below.
- Language:
The
fact that a group of people have only one language is not a necessary requisite
for them to be a nation (hence, a state).
There
are several cases in which although the state has one official language, its
inhabitants speak others (Argentina’s official language is Spanish but the
Welsh community in the Patagonia learns both, Spanish and Welsh at school). Moreover,
there are several states around the world with more than one official language
(South Africa, Montenegro, Israel, India, Peru, United Kingdom, to name a few).
- Ethnicity:
An
ethnic group can be defined as that in which its members identify themselves
with each other through a common background or heritage (real or assumed) that
may consist in the language, culture, religion, race, etc. As we are
considering religion and language separately, we shall focus on culture and
race when dealing with ethnicity here.
Is
to be black or white a requisite to be part of a community? Is it an African or
Asian background necessary? Once again, there are several examples that have a
direct answer to the question. In nowadays world, most (if not all) states have
populations with individuals from various races and many different cultural
backgrounds. Our vocabulary has even a word for such a phenomenon:
cosmopolitan. It appears that a common ethnicity is not fundamental so to
constitute a nation.
- Religion:
There
are states with official religions such as Argentina, Monaco, Vatican City
(Roman Catholic), Iceland, Denmark (Lutheran), United Kingdom (Anglican), etc. Nevertheless,
there are several that are considered secular states; in other words, without
any official State religion: Bolivia, France, United States, etc. Moreover,
those states that do have an official religion usually recognize in their
Constitutions freedom of religion so although they do have an official one,
their inhabitants are able to profess the religion of their choice.
As
we have seen, the individuals that integrate the population of a certain state
may have (and in most cases, they do have) diverse beliefs, ethnic background,
languages, etc. but they still can perfectly be considered as an integrated
group of people able to be a nation and therefore, constitute a state.
NOTE:
This post is based on Jorge Emilio Núñez, “Territorial Disputes and State
Sovereignty: International Law and Politics,” London and New York: Routledge,
Taylor and Francis Group, 2020 (forthcoming)
Previous
published research monograph about territorial disputes and sovereignty by the
author, Jorge Emilio Núñez, “Sovereignty Conflicts and International Law and
Politics: A Distributive Justice Issue,” London and New York: Routledge, Taylor
and Francis Group, 2017.
NEXT
POST: State and its elements, territory
Wednesday 18th September 2019
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez
Twitter: @London1701
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